In the studio...soon

I am eagerly awaiting August 29. Care to hazard a guess as to why?

As you can tell from the picture of my work table, not too much art making has been happening in the studio this month. August has been filled with little girls and little girl stuff. By the end of the day, my brain has been too frazzled to do much more than stare at the tv or pretend to read a book or play mindless games on my iPad. If anything - emails, art, phone calls, etc. - has required more than sound bite time, well...it just hasn't gotten done.  My apologies to those to whom communications are due...they will come soon.

So...have you figured out what happens on Wednesday? I'll give you a hint.

August 29th = more studio time

Got it now? August 29 is the first day of school in our town. The little urchins are 5 and that means...a drum roll, please....KINDERGARTEN!!!! ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Can you tell I'm the least bit excited by this? Horrible mother, right? 

Back to sound bites - it's not entirely true to say that no art type activities have taken place in the studio this month. Rather nothing requiring a lot of focused time. The second book of tea has been started. Care for a sneak peak?

The wrapped white stones are not part of the book. Sorry to disappoint. They are a gift from Fiona and are wrapped with threads from Habu. Their placement on the tea and rust dyed pages seemed natural this morning and have produced a few what if's. Fitting. Thank you Fiona for such a lovely gift!

Remember, if you think you hear either far off maniacal laughter or one huge sigh of contentment around 7:30 am NYC time Wednesday, it's likely to be me after the little urchins have boarded the school bus as I stroll back into the studio for a bit of quality time. 

A rare day

Yesterday was a bit of rare day for me. 

It involved a train ride,

 lots of walking and looking up at the windows of office buildings

while admiring unintentional art compositions on some.

This way?

 

Or this way?

Some art was on purpose.

Some was the kind that feeds your senses.

It sounds odd to admit, but the wallpaper blew me away

 as did my view at lunch.

In case you haven't guessed, Saturday was a day in New York City. Even midst the heat, it was fun to explore, see new art, visit Habu as well as the Museum of Art and Design and reminisce about my last trek to the Big Apple in February to meet Fiona and Barry.

More about the day and the art...especially the wallpaper...to come. Right now there's a party to get ready for. 

My little urchins graduated from preschool on Friday and a celebration is in order.

Oh! If you have a chance, pop over to Flags for Peace Project - 2012 to see what I did this week.

Habu

Sunday's post over at Paper Ponderings was titled Pebble happiness and for stoners like me or Habu junkies, again...like me, it was a feast for the eyes, senses and imagination.

You see, during her recent trip to New York Fiona visited Habu Textiles, which must have been heavenly. Actually, there's another phrase that comes to mind to describe what the experience must have been like that is definitely not suitable for my pg rated blog. But...oh! my!...that's exactly what it must have been like to stand midst Habu's exquisite textiles.

screen capture of  Habu's web site home page

And...well, textiles is a good word for Habu's products. Calling them yarns doesn't begin to do them justice, neither does threads. Ribbons are certainly not what they are, nor are they mere strings. They are textiles to be used however our creative mind sees fit.

Fiona used her Habu to wrap pebbles in the most simple, yet spiritual way. I sat in awed silence for quite a while Sunday morning, just gazing at her wrapped pebbles and thinking just how right it was. How Zen. 

In my comment regarding her post, I promised Fiona a shot of my Habu stash...which has been accumulating since my first Surface Design Conference back in 2005. 

Fiona, these are for you!